Reception Desks make City Police Stations more people-friendly

Mysuru: With an intention to treat visitors, who come to Police Stations in a polite and disciplined manner, all Police Stations across the city are being provided with a comprehensive reception desk. And once you enter a Police Station, you will feel like entering a corporate office with a receptionist who will say, “May I help you.”

As part of the initiative, the Jayalakshmipuram Police Station has been done up with a separate reception section where the visitors are greeted. The photographs of the visitors are clicked with a camera on the desk and after listening to the purpose of their visit, the receptionist directs them to the relevant sections. Say if a visitor comes to the station for Passport verification, he/ she is directed to the officer who is in-charge of the section.

The receptionists, who also happen to be Police personnel, are given special training on how to handle visitors and they directly report to the Commissioner’s office. The facility has been established following the directives of Director General and Inspector General of Police (DG&IGP) Neelamani N. Raju who has ordered to establish reception desks under the ‘Jana Snehi Police Scheme’

At least 3-4 personnel from every Police Station have been trained in soft skills and this initiative which is aimed at helping the Department fight the negative public perception towards Police behaviour.

Once a visitor enters the Police Station, he/ she can obtain a token from an automatic token vending machine and wait for the token number to be called out in case there is a rush. A visitor’s register is kept at the reception desk which will record name and telephone number of the visitor, time of visit to the Police Station, the nature of complaint/ work, the person who attended to the visitor, signature/ thumb impression of the visitor and time of departure of the visitor. On top of the register, the reception officer will enter his/her name and badge number.

The reception desk at Jayalakshmipuram Police Station where visitors are greeted, enquired about the purpose of visit and photographed before directing them to the sections concerned.

Inaugurating the helpdesk at Jayalakshmipuram Police Station recently, City Police Commissioner Dr. A. Subrahmanyeswara Rao said that the aim was to create a congenial atmosphere for aggrieved parties who visit Police stations to lodge complaints.

“The reception desk will help Policemen keep track of those visiting the station so that they can monitor the status of their grievances. All the all 24 stations across the city, including the five Traffic Stations, will have such reception counters for the visitors to feel comfortable when they come in,” he said.

Complainants and other individuals coming into the Station will be handed an acknowledgement slip and this will ensure accountability and help complainants track the progress of their cases.

“The acknowledgement slip from a specific Station will be made compulsory if the complainant has to meet higher officials so that we can know what their grievance is and why the officer concerned could not be addressed,” the Commissioner said.

“We have come out with innovative reception desks which will be appealing to all. Proper records will be maintained and the personnel have been trained to retrieve records whenever needed. Three to four officers from each Police Station across the city have been handpicked and given training. They will be shuffled and posted to different Police Stations,” added Rao.